07 09 Anticipation for Brake Safety Day

Sept 7, 2017: We are marking today’s Brake Safety Day, with a new feature designed to improve road safety and brake usage. We call it Anticipation.

It monitors the gap between acceleration and brake usage to help improve driver behavior and reduce wear and tear on brakes. Anticipation data and analysis is available through our platform FleetManager.com.

This driver is demonstrating excellent Anticipation skills.

CVSA’s Brake Safety Day

Today, September 7, officials from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) will be on roads throughout North America and Canada inspecting CMVs to check that brakes are in full working order. The CSVA says that, at 45.7%, brake-related violations are the largest percentage of all out-of-service violations during Operation Airbrake’s companion International Roadcheck campaign.

Inspectors run a 37-step procedure to ensure driver operating requirements and vehicle fitness are up to standard. They test large trucks for out-of-adjustment brakes, and brake-systems and antilock braking system (ABS) violations.

The CVSA runs the day annually to improve road safety. In parallel, it runs education, training and outreach programs to raise awareness of the importance of brake safety and the campaign.

A driver with a low Anticipation score spends a lot of time moving quickly between brake and accelerator.

Anticipating Safety

To coincide with Brake Safety Day, our new feature, Anticipation, measures how well a driver is anticipating the road ahead by monitoring their use of the accelerator and brake pedals. It measures the time taken before the brake is pressed after the driver lifts off the accelerator.

When these events are banded together, large numbers of events of short duration (e.g. of less than one second) show a reaction to an event, rather than a controlled braking event. A higher Anticipation percentage reflects a driver who is more controlled in their driving style. Less brake usage reduces wear and tear on brake-system components such as linings, pads, drums or rotors. That then results in better vehicle braking efficiency and fewer defective brakes.

Mark Whitney, our Head of Product Development sees our new Anticipation feature as sharing the same goal as Brake Safety Day. He told us: “its aim is to increase safety and reduce the number of crashes involving commercial vehicles.”

Anticipation is a strong safety indicator. It highlights drivers more likely to have an accident, so these can be prevented before they happen. A poor anticipation score indicates that the driver is not anticipating that he may need to stop in a few seconds, instead of reacting too late to an event.

Brake Safety Day is sponsored by CVSA in partnership with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Ask your account manager or sales manager to tell you more about our Anticipation feature.